Four years inside for serial burglar

A BURGLAR wept as seven years of plundering people’s homes to fuel his appetite for cash, watches and mobile phones finally caught up with him.

Serial thief Daniel Exley, 24, was released early from a 45-month sentence for three burglaries only to go shoplifting and burgling a house in Sands Lane, Bridlington, before his sentence expired.

Exley has 17 previous convictions - including five burglaries. He had the contacts to sell stolen goods and he was caught after leaving a finger print and footprint near the window of a flat occupied by Dennis Green, 58, on May 21.

Jailing him for four years, Recorder Rachim Singh told Exley: “You really are at the end of the road for this type of offending. Only a substantial prison sentence can be justified.”

At Hull Crown Court where he appeared last Thursday for sentence, Crown barrister Nicholas Adlington said Mr Green had gone to bed when Exley broke in through a window stealing his Nokia telephone, a £375 Tissot watch and a £250 Dreyfuss watch. The Dreyfuss watch was never recovered

Five days after the burglary a man, who subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of dishonestly receiving stolen goods, tried to sell the Tissot watch at Griffin Jewellers in Prospect Street, Bridlington, the same jewellers Mr Green had bought it from.

An off-duty police officer was in the shop at the time.

A positive identification was made on a finger print left at the scene of the Sands Lane burglary and when Exley was arrested his shoes were taken which matched a footprint near the flat. He also had the Nokia phone in his possession.

The court heard when Exley was 17 he burgled the home of Sylvia Clayton in Haworth Walk, Bridlington, three times. Mrs Clayton was so emotionally distressed she could not return to her home again.

He failed in his community rehabilitation order and expanded his criminal career with a mandatory three-year detention in a Young Offenders’ Institution in October 2006 for his “third-strike burglary”.

Unable to go straight after early release Exley was sentenced to three years and nine months in September 2008 for three burglaries; asking for four other offences to be taken into consideration.

He gave his last address as Westminster Avenue, Hull and appeared in court last Thursday after pleading guilty to the burlgary in Sands Lane.

His defence barrister Christopher Dunn asked the judge not to jail Exley.

He said: “He had been out drinking. He could not remember much of the offence. When he woke up the following day he had some low value items.”

Recorder Singh said Exley had been shown mercy by Bridlington Magistrates in February by giving him a conditional discharge for shop theft. He said the latest offence was aggravated because the burglary was while Mr Green was at home asleep at night.